Disciplinary Policies and Professional Ethics

Establishing Initial Group Rules/Expectations

I believe that students are more apt to follow rules when they are involved in the process of making the rules. Therefore, at the beginning of the school year we will make a list of classroom rules as a class. There will be both teacher and student input, but ultimately, the rules I want enforced will be on the rule sheet we make and hang on the wall. Rather than just tell them what the rules are I will prompt them to say the rules I want by asking leading questions. (ex. What about going to the bathroom? Do you think you should just be able to go to the bathroom whenever you want or do you think we should have to ask the teacher first so that I know where you are if something should happen?)

What are consequences for breaking class rules/school rules?

Different rules merit different consequences, as some rules are more important than others. (ex. Getting out of your seat when you arent supposed should have a smaller consequence than hitting another student) I intend on having a system set up where you pull a card if you do something wrong. You start on green at the beginning of everyday, but misbehaviors cause you to pull a card. The card behind green is yellow, which would just be a warning, then red, which is a time out, and finally white, which would mean either a trip to the principal or a call home depending on the misbehavior. More severe rule breaking, such as hitting another student, would result directly to a call home and a trip to the principals. At the end of each week, all students who went the entire week without going past yellow apple will get to pick a prize from the treasure chest (filled with things like McDonalds toys, colorful pencils, etc.) This way, the students have a positive reinforcement for good behavior, not just a punishment for bad behavior.

Student Disrespect to myself and other teachers

Disrespect will, of course, not be tolerated. The students (and other teachers) will know that if a student is out of line, the teacher has the authority to make them pull a card. If it becomes a frequent problem they will be punished more severely. (ex. Skip the yellow warning and go straight to red.) If it still doesnt stop, I will call their parents and discuss the problem with them. Hopefully that will resolve the problem. If that STILL doesnt fix it, we will do a seminar type thing in the classroom on respect. It wont be directed explicitly at the child who is having difficulties with respect, but I would pull him/her aside later in the day and discuss what (s)he learned during this seminar.

Conflict on the playground

The same rules apply on the playground as in the classroom, and students will know that and that they still are accountable for their actions. If there are other adults other than myself monitoring them on the playground, they too will have the ability to make the students pull a card. Fighting will still result in a call home/trip to the principals. These children however are only 5-6 so I dont foresee too many fighting issues rather than a verbal spat and tattletales (which wont result in a call home/trip to principals they will be dealt with by the card system unless it becomes a frequent problem, then it will result in a call home.)

Tardiness
Since these children are so young, tardiness cannot be something they are held responsible for. When kindergartners are tardy it is their parents fault and not their own so I will not make them face any consequences when they had no control of the situation. If a student is arriving late often, I would simply have a talk with the parent(s) and gently remind them that it is very important that their child(ren) arrive at school on time so they dont miss anything. Or I might send a generic note home, reminding parents of the importance of their children arriving on time to the entire class, so that the parent doesnt feel personally singled out, though they would still most likely get the message and make a better effort at making sure their child is at school on time.

Disrupting/offending others
The class rules will include a rule about respecting each other. We will discuss what that means when we are adding it to our list of rules. This way the students understand the meaning of it and so they can be held accountable for behaving respectfully. If they chose to be disrespectful by distracting another student or saying something offensive they will have to pull a card. If this problem persists, it will result in a phone call home, and if it still doesnt stop, being put in a desk away from other students so they no longer have the ability to be distracting.

Not getting work done/not trying

Since Kindergartners are new to the whole school aspect, I dont think this will be as big of an issue as it is for older grades. They also wont be given actual grades for many things, as many of their assignments are more for formative assessment rather than formative. They will be encouraged to work on everything, and assistance will be available, as I will be walking around to assist while they work on various assignments. If needed I will sit down with a student for a short time to get them started on the assignment and then once they understand what is being asked of them and are able to work independently on it I will move on to assist another student. If they are refusing to even make an attempt at work they will have to pull a card, and they will still be expected to finish the work, whether they have to take it home and work on it there or work on it during another part of the day, they still need to complete the work they have been assigned.

Cheating
I dont foresee this being a big problem in kindergarten, and if a child were to look at another students work it would be quite obvious. I wouldnt have any strict punishment for this rule, simply because they are just learning what cheating even means, but if I were to catch a student cheating, I would simply pull them aside and explain to them that I need them to do their own work, rather than copy another students so I can see what they know so they can continue to learn in my classroom. If the student continues to cheat after I have pulled them aside for this talk, they would face the typical classroom punishment of having to pull a card. If this problem were still happening, they would be moved to another place in the room away from other students for a while to encourage them to do their own work.

Parent/Principal involvement
I intend on dealing with most of the discipline myself in my classroom, however there is a point when parents and/or the principal needs to be involved. I stated at the point I would involve them into the discipline in the above situations. Essentially, they will need to be involved when the problems persist and the child refuses to cooperate. I am not a fan of the idea of calling home, but if it is a necessary step to get the child back on track at school, I will definitely make that step for the sake of the student and the rest of the class. My classroom needs to be a safe and good learning environment for all of the students and when a child is compromising that environment, their parents and/or the principal need to be notified.

Adult Interaction Behavior

Gossip is a part of everyones life, whether they admit to it or not. Therefore I cant say with a clear conscious that I wont allow gossip to effect me in the school environment. What I can say though, is I will try very hard to not let it effect the way I treat a student or the class as a whole. I will not participate in lounge gossip by talking negatively about my students or other teachers. If a teacher needs to vent to me I will be happy to listen, but only as a third party and I will not outwardly agree or disagree with what they are saying. I will treat all of my colleagues with respect,

even if I dont like them. I will keep my dislike of a colleague to myself, and not gossip about it with another colleague, as that is just asking for a difficult work environment. Even if I disagree with the views of my principal, I will follow his her rules, at least for the first year without outward question. While doing things his/her way, I will be sure to reflect on what I do and do not like about his/her views and take notes accordingly, so that my next year I could have some ideas for new strategies to share with him/her that I think will help the whole school. I would approach this conversation very cautiously and respectfully so that (s)he doesnt feel as if I am stepping on his/her toes. I would be sure to present both the negative and positives of my ideas and not be pushy with them, just simply ask that (s)he considers these ideas.

Classroom Routines and Procedures

Student Sharing
Whether they are sharing their work they did in the classroom of bringing in something for show-and-tell, student sharing is a great way to build a community in the classroom. I intend on having both aspects in my classroom, and both of them will operate on a schedule. For show-and-tell, there will be one person who shares each day. It will be a short 5 min presentation by the student that will also double as a transition. I would likely schedule it right after the kids get back from recess when they are still loud and wound up. They would have to be quiet to listen to the presenter, but its more of a fun thing to listen to and they dont really have to engage their brains quite yet, so it would be a nice transition. Obviously, there are more days in the school year than there are children in the classroom, so each child would have the opportunity to share more than once. To make it easy on myself, the schedule would simply go alphabetically, and when we reached the end, simply loop back around and start again. If a student were to forget to bring their show-and-tell on their assigned day or was absent that day, we would simply reschedule them for the next day and just have 2 sharers that day. If they forget 2 days in a row they simply miss their turn and have to wait until their next share day. (Not being at school doesnt count that way.) I would also like students to share the work they did in class. My class will have reading groups (which will hopefully divide up into five, if not Id combine or separate to made 5 for share day) and each day of the week would indicate which reading group gets to share work. They dont necessarily have to share something they worked on in literacy that day, but I imagine many will because their groups will be broken up by their reading groups. Since this is a weekly share session, there will be no make-up for being absent the day of their presenting. Each presenter will show a piece of work and talk about it for 30 seconds to a minute. This can also be used as a transition, as it works well to do after their literacy block is over when they are already in their sharing group.

Room Helpers
I got this idea from the video of the teacher we watched in class. I will have a list of the names of all the students in class laminated and hanging up in the room. I will then have clothespins with the room helper job written on them. I will place the pins on the list (spread out evenly, not all of them at the top) and each day I will move each clothespin down 1 name. This way it is easy to keep track of who is what helper and make sure that each person gets a turn being each. Room helper jobs will include: Line leader, Caboose (back of the line), paper handler (helps hand out papers), fish feeder, and pencil sharpener.

Free Time
Free time in my class will be used for the students to either finish up work they didnt finish earlier in the day, or they can use it to read something out of their browsing box. Reading is such and important part of the curriculum in kindergarten and there just isnt enough time in the day for students to read as much as they should, especially if they arent reading with their parents at home. Even if they arent actually reading all the words and just looking at the pictures, they are still getting literacy exposure, which is still beneficial in my opinion.

Field Trips
Obviously, field trips require parental permission. I would send notes home to all the parents talking about the fieldtrip planned with details a few weeks before the field trip so they have time to decide if it is something they want their child to attend. Then closer to the date of the field trip (like a week or so out) I would send home a permission slip. On the permission slip I would add a box to check if they dont want their child to attend so the parents dont feel pressured to allow their child to go. (Though I hope all of my students are able to attend every field trip!) The week before the field trip, I would start talking to my class about what we are doing and the different expectations of them while they are on this field trip (ex. how they should dress, that they need to pack a lunch etc.)

Doing Homework
Homework at this age is something I believe the kids should be introduced to, but I dont think I can rightfully assess them through it, nor can I punish them for not completing their homework, as it is often something parents are needed to assist with. If the parents are too busy to help their child with their homework every night then it isnt fair to penalize the child for their incompletion. I might have a talk with the parents about what they can expect for their childrens homework and how important it is that they read at home but since I am not grading the parents, I dont think the homework should be a large part of the students life. I believe they should

have a small amount of homework a couple of nights a week, along with the encouragement to read every night, to get them used to the idea of having homework, but I dont find any benefit in giving 5 year olds excessive amounts of homework. Its not fair to the children who spent all day learning to come home and do more school work, and its not fair to the busy parents.

Handing in Papers
I plan to have a big basket at the front of the room labeled Finished work for the kids to put their finished assignments in. With some assignments I will ask to check them first before they stick them in the basket, and others they will simply be instructed to put them in when they have completed the assignment. Not all assignments are going to need to be turned in, some will just be practice and I will instruct them to stick them in their cubbies to take home and show their parents. (I wont use the word practice or anything so that they still feel it is important for them to complete the assignment.)

Passing out papers/assignments

One of my classroom jobs is a paper handler who will help me hand out papers to all the students that day. This job will be fun for the kids, and it will also speed up the process so all the kids can get to work as soon as possible. Each student will also have a cubby for papers to go home, and so I can simply stick a paper in each cubby when I have something to go home to mom and dad. They will have a take home folder that will go home once a week that contains all of the papers from the cubby. It will be a set day (ex. Thursday Take Home Folder) so that the parents will know to expect it and make sure it is returned (empty) the following day.

Dismissals
With the exception of the end of the day, anytime the children are going anywhere they will be expected to line up (because we will be walking in the hall). I will dismiss them by table or row (depending if they are sitting at their tables or in their carpet spot) to go and line up. I will only call tables/rows when that

table/row is being quiet and sitting appropriately with their table/spot cleaned of the activity they were working on before the dismissal. Once all of the rows/tables have been dismissed to line up we will sing out line song (detailing how we should act while in the hallway) and then we will walk as a class to wherever we need to go (ex. recess, lunch, music, P.E., etc.) At the end of the day, the students will be dismissed as their parents show up (for those picked up by parents) the bus riders will all be dismissed together so they can walk to the bus together. Any other situations (kids that stay after school, kids that walk home, etc.) will be dismissed either individually or as a group if more than one of them are going to the same place.

Bathroom procedures/Getting drink

Since kindergartners are still quite young, it is important that they are allowed to go to the bathroom when they need to go. I plan to a couple of scheduled bathroom breaks/drink breaks for the whole class. While every student may not need to use the bathroom at the same time, they still might want at drink. I have noticed in my practicum that most of the children go to the bathroom during breaks, I dont know if they were told at the beginning of they year that they should try to use the bathroom during breaks or if they just figured it out on their own, but it seems to be beneficial to the class environment, as there are less interruptions of individual bathroom breaks throughout the day because of it. If a student needs to go to the bathroom between bathroom breaks, they will of course be allowed to, but they must ask the teacher first, simply so I know where they are at in case of an emergency.

Going to Specials
Going to specials will be treated just like a regular dismissal. They will walk in a line to the special and in a line on the way back. They will b e expected to be quiet while in the hallway. They are expected to behave in specials and follow the special teachers rules, and the special teacher will have the power to make them pull a card should the students fail to follow the rules of their room. The students will be aware of this power.

Transitions
Im a big fan of singing songs for transitions. I mentioned earlier the standing in a line song, which is a transitional song. There are songs about everything if you just look, or you can even make them up! I intend on beginning each morning with a good morning song to get kids transitioned from being at home to being at school, and a goodbye song at the end of each day. Between subjects I will use topic related songs as much as possible. (Ex. a song about the solar system before each science lesson on the solar system, head-shoulders-knees-and-toes before our unit on the

body, etc.) Songs are fun for kids and make it easy for them to get involved with their next activity.

Differentiation
I will have a lot of group work/stations in my classroom. For literacy I will split kids up based on reading level, and also what they need to work on as readers. I want to teach CGI math, because there is so much differentiation in that but yet they are all still working on the same problem! Ive learned about it in math, but it didnt make much sense until I saw it implemented in a classroom and it works great! I really look forward to being able to use either that strategy exactly, or a modified but similar one to fit my curriculum. I will also be sure to not put a limit on how much a student does. (ex. write 3 sentences vs. write at least 3 sentences)

Parents
I think it is great when parents want to be involved with their childrens education and/or in the classroom. I will definitely encourage it, as help in the classroom is always wonderful and education is so important, I definitely want the parents on my side. I would be happy to answer any of the parents questions/concerns via email, phone, or in person. Parental involvement and support is a great way to help children get the most they can out of schooling. For parent/teacher conferences, I will put together samples of the childs work from throughout the year to show them their improvement. I will also do the sandwich approach with things that their child is doing well and things we still need to work a little on. (Positive, negative, positive.) No child is perfect, so each child will have something to put in the need to work a little on but it will be delivered with tact and respect. Sally is doing great in her reading, she is comprehending really wellwe still are working a little on staying in our seat during work timeshe always has a cheerful disposition and she really is a joy to have in the classroom. I will address both their social aspects and their academic aspects.